Best I've seen: Richard Kaufman (it's on his "On the Pass" video), Larry Jennings (on his French sessions videos), unpublished ones by Harvey Rosenthal, Steve Draun, Geoff Latta and Peter Duffie. Those are the ones I've seen that I wish I could do.

Originally posted by Jim Molinari:I think Jon Racherbaumer had something of Marlo's in Card Finesse called the Tan Hock Chaun Pass. It is one of the best around.

It's been awhile, hopefully somebody can verify this.

Jim

Wow... I'd forgotten all about the Tan Hock Chaun Pass. I remember reading about it in Chris Kenner's book, and thinking that the mechanics of the move were very efficient. I'll have to go back and review it again.

I keep hearing that Fisher's cover pass is described in The Paper engine. Is the full description of the move in the book or is it hidden within the descrition of another move because There is one move description that seems like it could also be appliedto a cover pass.

Not only is Aaron Fisher's Cover Pass described in the Paper Engine, it's ALSO described in his issue of Genii (Dec.2002). He likes to hide it in the descriptions of tricks that use it in a slightly different way.Now you know ... go thou and look.

I'm with Jimmy Molinari. The Tan Hock Chaun pass is about as perfect as they come. Nothing seems to move. When executed well it's truly invisible.In fact Marlo recommends that you ATTRACT attention to your hands during the pass as you say, "Watch the deck closely..."

I "second" Jimmy Cards and Powerful Mike regarding the Tan Hock Chaun Pass. The version in CARD FINESSE 1 is Marlo's technical variation. To me, it was the first GRAVITY-based shift. It is silent and deadly.

I've done the Tan Hock Chaun Pass for many years, in fact, since I drew the illustrations for Card Finesse. It's a nice quiet move, but it has a large dip and it has the "Kittens in a bag" look that Vernon used to talk about to indicate things moving and muscles flexing when in fact nothing is supposed to be happening.Aaron Fisher's Cover Pass (and Jennings', for that matter) are better sleights.

I've seen Aaron Fisher's cover pass, and I fully agree that it looks absolutely incredible.

One thing though, I know I might either get backing or criticism for this, bit I'll say it anyways. I've never understand why magicians are so hung up on specific touches and variations of different moves (myself included.) I mean, a statement like this is made, and this mysterious aura is created around a certain person's move or effect. In no way am I trying to detract from Aaron's perfect skill, he's a good friend of mine... but certain things look certain ways in people's hands. For Aaron, his hand and finger shape, and the YEARS that he practiced, the end result is a thing of beauty. When you think about it, what can he be doing that's THAT different? Not much really, he just does a regular cover pass (with a few minor changes.) So if this thought line is continued, it is the structuring of the move, not the practice of the performer that is responsible for the end result (gross overexaggeration on my part, just trying to illustrate my thoughts.) Maybe instead of asking what the work is on someone's move, we should ask ourselves what it is that makes the move so nice, and apply it to our version (eg come up with our own way of eliminating finger flashes and certain tells.)

Magicians (again myself included) tend to think that a new finger placement or touch or finesse is going to help us achieve perfection, when it is quite arguable that a good card man can take even the crappiest move, and make it look like a thing of beauty. When I first met Aaron, I (inspired by Mr. Kaufman's way of learning the pass from Derek Dingle) lied on the floor and watched Aaron do the cover pass over and over... then came to the sad conclusion that mine would just never look that good... unless I changed it around to personalize it.

I guess its just a peculiarity of us magicians to be like that. Strange, isn't it? Any ideas on this?

Originally posted by Jim Molinari:I think Jon Racherbaumer had something of Marlo's in Card Finesse called the Tan Hock Chaun Pass. It is one of the best around.

It's been awhile, hopefully somebody can verify this.

Jim

Marlo's variant of originally appeared in Hierophant I believe, as part of a Racherbaumer/Marlo essay on the Cover Pass.

I like to use the Pass just before I place the deck on the table as the actions work perfectly together. If I were to create attention to it as Marlo suggests, I'd execute the Pass as I ask, "Watch the deck," And by the time they focus onto the deck, the Pass would have already been executed.

I have a top card cover pass called, "Passtitution." Though not in the classic pass tradition, it accomplishes exactly the same thing, is completely angle proof and virtually moveless. You can learn it in a few hours.

Richard keeps threatening to publish this in Genii, so it should show up there at some point.